Only Degrees of Guilt
by Claytonimor
Summary: Two friends find themselves cast adrift, with only each other to rely upon and only their wits, guns, and willpower to aid them against a dark galaxy. A mercenary and a spymaster, with the great gift of American blood, will surely prosper in a galaxy at war, right?
1. Chapter 1

Disney owns Star Wars, not I. No moneys are being created by this for me.

* * *

><p><em>That isn't my ceiling.<em>

All things considered, my entrance into a new world, more accurately: into a new galaxy was about as foreboding as the morning after a sleep over. I was comfortable: the bed was amazingly perfect, the temperature of the room was just the right kind of cool, and the lights were dim enough to not hurt my eyes, but bright enough to illuminate the room properly. All those factors, however, did not keep me from realizing a few things: no one I knew had a metal ceiling in their bedroom, there were many odd background noises that my mind could not easily classify, and, lastly, my body didn't feel right.

All these factors came together to make my body surge upward, fully alert and ready for an attack on my person. Seconds later, my mind caught up and asked the seemingly important question; why would I be expecting an attack on my person? Contemplating this mostly against my will, I took in the room I was in. It was spacious, at least the size of the whole dorm I had gone to sleep in the night before, and seemed to be completely composed of metal. The bed I occupied was round, with a small nightstand sitting near where my head had been laying and against the back wall of the room. Directly across the room and against the far wall, a work table, also made of metal, sat empty. There were no other pieces of furniture in the room, but two metal sliding doors (judging from the seam) occupied a space on both side walls. One was to my right, along the wall and flush with the back wall, while the other was halfway across the room to my left. Of course, while I was scanning the room, more facts about why my body felt so wrong came to make themselves known in a moderately horrifying way.

First of all, from what I could see, my skin was blue, which generally doesn't mean anything healthy, frostbite, STDs, and the like come to mind. At the same time, my arms also looked much thinner than I was used to and my legs, still hidden under the covers of the bed, seemed to be much thinner as well, at least that was the impression I got from rubbing them together. The last thing was that I felt healthy, strong even! Before I had gone to sleep the night before, I wasn't quite what one would call fat, but I certainly wasn't fit. Now, however, I felt like a million bucks, or at least someone who had a million bucks to throw at medical professionals, trainers, and dietitians.

Oh course, these were a massive changes that rocked me to my core...or at least they would have, had I not been so completely distracted by another change in my anatomy that seemed to have happened overnight.

"What the actual fuck?"

I had breasts.

"Sweet mother of Jesus!"

It seemed my 'parts' had changed as well.

Keeping a wary eye on the door, for what I'm not sure, I tried to figure out just what else had changed. Huh, well that's a vagina. Never seen one from this perspective before, kinda cool looking. I'd hit that. My breasts received further exploration, for they are definitely deserving of such attention, and they seemed to enjoy it. 'Standing at full attention' came to mind. Silky smooth skin, just that right shade of azure…. Holy shit, that's a sexy body. Okay, calm down. Where have I seen blue-skinned babes before? We got... Asari? And... Twi'leks? Definitely Twi'leks. Asari are more...scaly-looking than this silky-smooth beauty. Whatever or whoever this is, thinking about Twi'leks brought up a bunch of images of Twi'leks I've never seen before.

_Some red-skinned Twi'lek with stripes on her lekku, daring to try and resist our forces, the fool._

_A male Twi'lek, his yellow Lekku wrapped tightly around his throat as I choked the life out of him, how dare he try to seduce me!_

The fuck was that?

Okay, calm down, being a Twi'lek is cool, at least. Everyone in their right minds has a thing for Twi'leks, and I'd be damned if that blue isn't just a deeper, richer shade of every sexy Twi'lek that's ever been blue. Like dark blue Hershey Kiss tipped hills of fucking awesome. And hyperventilation, that's not good. I laid still for a few moments, trying to retrain my lungs to fucking listen to my fucking brain you pieces of shit! And it worked. Surprisingly. Maybe Twi'leks have conscious control over their lungs, they don't get too much attention in the Star Wars fluff.

I laid my head back to better contemplate what was happening, stuffing an arm under the pillow out of habit, only to impact a cold, metallic object. Huh. I grab it and pull it out. Holy shit, that's a blaster pistol… Make? Model? Power? Recoil? Color? I don't care, I feel a touch safer now- less unable to control my situation. Seemed like the standard point and click interface, reloading might be a bitch, but if I shoot the guy in the face a few times, reloading doesn't matter.

This time I kept the blaster in my hand as I checked out the less awesome parts of my body. Standard two legs, five toes, two arms, five fingers. All smooth and silky and clearly the best moisturizer on this side of the planet, holy hell. Wow.

Mild panic attack in reaction to the slow realization of sudden womanhood, fuck you panic attack, panic attack leaves. This isn't how panic attacks work. Another panic attack in reaction to the realization that the panic attacks are wrong. Fuck you new panic attack. New panic attack fucks off like the little bitch it is.

Dammit, what kind of emotional control do Twi'leks have!

Now well and truly past my panic attack about a panic attack over a panic attack, I decided that exploring my body more would only lead to more panic attacks and eased myself out of the bed, on the prowl for some activity to distract myself. Some exploration was in order, after all. My feet hit the floor and I was already confused, however. The metal floor wasn't cold in the slightest. With how...active my frost detectors were, I was expecting to suffer the fate of all those without carpet floors, but, no, it must be heated by something.

Moving past the mildly interesting discovery of my environment, I brandished my pistol and looked between the two doors out of the room.

Eeny meeny miny mo...

With my foolproof decision making skill complete, I opened the left door and found, to my great relief, a bathroom and connected closet space. Seeing as all I was wearing currently were a pair of disheveled pajamas (panic attacks do not make for clean clothes), I made for the closet to look for a more reputable outfit. Sure, I might have had to use the restroom a tad, but no way was I going to tackle that debacle quite yet.

The sliding doors of the wardrobe swished open and I was exposed to row after row of pressed, folded, and immaculate uniforms, all in a style I knew, in fact, I had been staring at the same outfit for hours on end several times over the course of the last few months. The best, coolest looking uniforms this side of the Swiss Guard.

There, pressed and clean in front of me, hung pair after pair of pristine Imperial uniforms. The rank insignias on the breasts of the uniforms were unfamiliar to me, but my subconscious mind shouted '1st Lieutenant'. Briefly, I reached for one of the uniforms, before the sight of my hand reminded me of one of my previous discoveries.

_My skin is blue..._

A sharp intake of breath marked my newest epiphany and I whirled away from the closet space, rushing towards a large mirror over what I assumed (hoped, more like) to be a sink.

Staring down into the sink, purposefully avoiding that filthy reflective glass, I tried my damnest to activate the sink. And, hey what do you know? Its motion activated. Splashing water on my face should kill this latest panic attack, this one seems to be mildly more significant than the rest. I glare down, sigh, shake my head a bit to steel myself…and look up at the mirror above the sink.

Hands quivering, I reached up and pulled my loose black hair back, and I beheld my new face, a face I had already seen dozens, if not hundreds, of times before. It, no _I_, had an angular face, with a small scar over the right cheek, that, if anything, only accentuated the beauty of it. All the while, piercing red eyes that bled sexuality and murder stared back at me.

Slowly, I started to laugh- to giggle, even.

_I'm..._

_...I'm a-no, the Agent._

_My Agent! Li'laith!_

_A Chiss! A woman! A sniper!_

_Holy shit… I can't take this stress! _

I fall back, blackness fills my vision. My only thought was:

_God I hope I'm after Alderaan- I fucking hated Alderaan._

* * *

><p>I stepped out of the sonic shower, why they couldn't put water on what I was now sure was the luxury yachtspy ship from SwtOR, I did not know, but I'll be damned if it wasn't effective. After having woken up on the floor of the restroom, I decided that a quick shower would certainly do me a world of good, or at least make me feel less disgusting, so, after barricading the door with the chair in the room (which I only really expected to make a noise and alert me to another's presence), I cleaned myself. And I was right! I felt like a new m-woman. Slowly, the implications of my new body finally hit me.

_I might like guys now..._

_...ewwwww_

Swiftly abandoning that train of thought, I made my way back to the sink. Now why did this have actual water but not the shower? Stupid...and I guess they were called 'freshers, not sinks.

Damn new galactic vernacular.

I'd have to learn how to curse again!

_Frak was one right? Or was that Warhammer...Fierfek was one, I swear to God._

Huh, a medicine cabinet. Like the classical, white painted, wooden rectangular prism with a small mirrored door on it medicine cabinet. How thoughtful…? I figured, why the hell not, and I opened it. The very first thing I noticed was… I've entirely forgotten how to read. But… I could still… somehow, attain knowledge of the various bottles. Strange. It's like… the strangest feeling ever. Like looking at a Calculus problem and then… just knowing what to do with it?

And that was an anti-stress pill...

Shutting the cabinet, markedly calmer, I sighed and proceeded to the closet. Letting it slide open, I donned a cleaned and pressed uniform of the Sith Empire. I then made my way to the mirror to appreciated my fine taste in apparel. When I received this for completing the Balmorran bonus series, I knew I had found my outfit for the game, and it still looked absolutely fabulous.

A few twirls in front of the mirror banished those thoughts and replaced them with much better ones, ones that did not slowly induce panic attacks, like:

_Damn, I'm hot._

Coming out of the restroom, I mustered what courage I could and made for the other door, my pistol at the ready. I was trying very hard not to pay attention to how I knew just how to hold the weapon. Soon enough, the door that must lead to the rest of the ship was looming in front of me, a menace on my psyche.

Well, not really.

I was actually practically buzzing with excitement.

_I'm so going to fly around the galaxy, blowing shit up everywhere._

As the door swished open, I crouched as far down as I could and, like a six-year-old trying to avoid being seen, poked my head out of the door, looking left and right. As I took in the rest of the ship (that I could see) my nostalgia for the Star Wars: The Old Republic only increased. To my right, I could see what I was sure was the cockpit. I could see a seat, some buttons and pulleys, the edge of the galaxy map, and a rather reflective dash that showed that almost all of the room to be empty (from somewhere in my head, I heard _no threat there_), but what really drew my attention was the narrow view out into a great void of space. Tearing my eyes from the beautiful sight – _I can always check it out later__ – _I turned to look left.

My left showed, once more, exactly what I was expecting. There was the side of the briefing table, a few extremely plushy-looking couches, a slice of the comm table, and, in the hallway in all the way at the back, a droid that was...waving at me?

_The fuck?_

_Shit-shit-shit-shit_

_Fuck! Here he comes!_

The genial droid, looking as joyful as a droid can, made his way directly through the central chamber and straight towards me. I attempted to back up, out of the doorway, but tripped over myself and fell on my ass. I glanced up fearfully at the droid that was now taking up the doorway and closed my eyes. I tried to protect myself with my arms, forgetting about the gun in my hand, and closed my eyes.

…

After a moment, I heard, "That was quite the journey, wasn't it master?"

Slowly opening my eyes, I saw that the droid was merely leaning over, its hand outstretched to help me up.

"It really is too bad about the rest of the passengers, though, master. They were clearly less magnificent than your glorious self."

Huh, well, I guess his suck-up cortex was fully functional.

"Though I do wish that they hadn't made such a mess as they died. Following the Standard Disposal Procedures barely brought the ship interior up to acceptable levels of shine"

Mentally, I recoiled.

_Rest of the passengers? Mess? Standard Disposal Procedures?_

However, it seemed that my body was tired of being on the ground and proceeded to grasp the droid's outstretched arm, allowing it to pull me up. With my legs now under me, I took a step back and holstered my pistol, suspicious eyes never leaving the droid. It hadn't moved from its position outside the door, having only cocked it's head like a confused puppy.

"Master, are you well? I am programmed to operate the medical facilities on board the vessel, despite the lack of trained medical personnel, if you are feeling sick, master."

"I'm fine, 2V-R8, just disoriented."

_The fuck? Who said that?_

"Do you know where we are?"

_Is...is that me? My voice isn't remotely that British!_

"I'm sorry, master, but the current star patterns do not match known databases. We are well and truly lost."

"Ummmm."

_Shit! I'm talking again! Quick! What's something that sounds kinda like it would apply here!_

"Have you...ummm, checked for stellar drift?"

_God...I'm doomed._

"Ah! You make a good point master! I'll go check right now!"

_Wait, that worked? What is this, a bad self-insert?_

_._

_._

_._

_Oh God, this **is** a bad self-insert._

The droid made a quick turn and made its way to the cockpit. Bewildered, I followed suit, watching my steps and glancing over my shoulders repeatedly, not quite sure if this was a safe course of action.

Shortly, however, I crossed the open doorway that led into the cockpit and was confronted by the sight that I had tried to avoid earlier.

The vast, empty blackness of space. Oh, sure, there were pinpricks of light everywhere, billions of them, each with a story of its own, simply waiting to be discovered. Yet, all of that was nothing. Space was simply _so much_ that a billion billion systems would not even begin to chip away at what space was at its very core. It was empty. It was dark. It was beautiful.

Back home, despite knowing about space, I had still comprehended the night sky as a massive canvas, flat as can be; there was no reason to see it for anything else, after all. Occasionally, I would think on it a little too hard, and my mind would go to dark places, would begin to _understand_, but, soon enough, it would all snap back into place. Out here, however, with no land beneath me to bind me to its surface, I could begin to feel the scope, the emptiness, of the great expanse of space. It was terrifying and exhilarating. Deadly and astonishing. All-encompassing and so very, very empty. It simply _was._

Well, at least until I saw the other ship.

"Master, the _Warhound_ is hailing us."

"The what?"

My expression of surprise and dismay at being violently shaken from my epiphany was interrupted by the galaxy map breaking into static, and a voice blaring out of the speakers, sounding for all the world like a high school teacher in the middle of trying not to murder her class, "I swear to God, this fucking thing better be working or...," before resolving itself into a rather muscular and...completely naked woman.

Umm...Wow. I mean, I was really sexy when I looked at myself in the mirror, but, umm, wow, I mean, I wasn't...you know, _completely_ naked at the time...so, yeah.

I mean, mine weren't quite as big when I had seen them and _why am I feeling jealous, small is good too!_

…

Moving on, she was also covered in scars, like a roadmap of conquests, battles hard fought, victories and defeats, lessons from arrogance and mistakes made, and... really hardcore S&M.

Blushing furiously from my discoveries in the female form I found, in spite of myself, my mouth responding, incredulously, "Cax? That you?"

_Cax? Why is that familiar? Wait, nude lady, umm..._

_Okay, ignoring the naked woman for now, positives?_

_Looks like I still like women. Yaaaay._

_What about negatives?_

_I'm pretty sure lesbianism isn't even a thing in Star Wars and I'm probably going to hell now._

The figure, who had been leaning over (Oh God, everything, _everything_, was showing), fiddling with something, looked up sharply and towards the projector, replying, "Cax? Well, yeah, in a way... How'd you know who I am?"

"Ah, um, before I answer, could you get dressed, please?"

I'd like to say that I managed to say that with a straight face, but I'm sure that, whatever color I become when I blush, I was glowing it right now.

"No."

It was said with such a level of finality and tonelessness that it nearly made me forget to be furious at being so easily, and rudely, dismissed.

_Nearly._

"What the Hell do you mean, 'No'?! Put on some damn clothes!"

With a sneer of either disappointment or anger, the _still naked_ woman replied, "The only clothing on this ship is my armor and the undersuit that leaves nothing to the imagination anyway, and I didn't feel like wearing a second set of skin."

She paused briefly, before giving a slight shrug and finishing.

"And I don't feel like wearing armor."

Sputtering lightly at how _blasé_ the woman was, I settled for simply looking away while answering, "Well, I have a friend with that name. We used to adventure all the time together."

I felt the unsettling feeling of the woman's eyes roaming up and down my body, before she let out a light note of surprise, "You are Li'laith. I remember you as well. Vaguely."

I was somewhat annoyed, but remembered that this body was supposed to be a spy before I did anything too rash.

_Being not recognized is a good, thing, right? Yeah. Alright, I love being unrecognized, yay._

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment. Do you know where we are?"

The naked woman, Cax, apparently, was quiet for a moment, her gaze even and piercing. What courage I had built up gave me a semblance of composure and I met her gaze steadily. Eventually, Cax let out a smirk and said eight words that brought everything together.

"Star Wars: the Old Republic MMO."


	2. Chapter 2

"Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO."

All was silent: the naked woman in front of me, practically flaunting herself, with a light smirk, watching for my reaction; the droid, sitting nearby, likely calculating something or another in an attempt to assuage my assumption of stellar drift from earlier; and myself, shocked at the woman's words and, yet, relieved greatly.

_It seems that I'm not alone._

My thoughts were tossed out as Caxia continued with a question.

"You... wouldn't happen to know anyone by the name of Claytonimor, would you?"

I looked back at the hologram in shock, my mouth likely hanging open and my eyes wide. I mean, I had expected it, but for her to just come out and say it...

_Get ahold of yourself, conversation aren't one-sided._

Pulling myself from my mental surprise, I adjusted my countenance from its shocked orientation and, ignoring the Cax's smirk and various other assets, made my reply.

"You wouldn't happen to be aware of the only Pharaoh with an internet connection, would you?"

The woman only nodded, her smile slowly growing before she replied.

"God, dude. Am I glad to see yo- well, your character at least. I got Cax's body and,"

Caxia rubbed her temples a bit before finishing her statement, a small wince that was barely visible through the holo all that betrayed the headache she, herself had.

"I think more than just her body. Helluva disorientating experience, lemme tell you, having two sets of memories."

Feeling the relief of having a friend out here in the Great Empty, I nodded with Cax, ignoring the droid who was now trying to frantically get my attention from the corner of my eye, and made my reply.

"Indeed, Caxia, though I would prefer if you didn't deceive me like that. I'm on something of a short rope, sanity-wise, and your antics aren't helping. Make no mistake, though, I am glad to have an ally out here, it's going to be hell."

Caxia's glee swiftly disappeared and was replaced, instead, with a long, concerned stare. My own small smile fell away and I felt panic bite at my heels once more.

_Nothing is wrong. Calm down. She's just a concerned _friend.

After what seemed like an hour of panicked silence as I fought to get my breath under control and Caxia continued to scrutinize me, my friend finally spoke up.

"Huh. You're taking this worse than I am, apparently."

I fought down an angry retort at her lackluster concern, barely managing to bring my sudden and completely unwarranted fury under control to see her shrug and continue.

"I've never heard you string together so many words in such a British voice. Get your head checked out."

Caxia's hologram glanced to the side and I could practically see the idea spring into her thoughts. With an easy smile back in my direction, the woman who was my friend and had yet to make any real attempts to stop being naked, finished with, "Hold on I'll do it for you," and then proceeded to speak out of the comm, not to me, likely believing that my droid was in the cockpit as well, despite having no way of knowing that.

"Hey droid, your mistress seems to be having some troubles recovering the proper data matrices, help her defragment. Give her a basic description of everything she encounters."

Looking at my droid more fully now, it was obvious, even without a moving face, that 2V-R8 was unhappy with being distracted by someone who was not his master. He bit, insofar as a droid can bite, out a reply at Caxia.

"Though my Master is magnanimous and much better than any other master, her mind is still organic, friend of Master's, and cannot be fixed – if it even need be – in such a manner."

Just barely visible through the hologram, Caxia rolled her eyes at my droid's reply and forged on.

"Whatever, my droid was fine with that explanation, and at least now you know there is a problem, so hop to it, bucket-head."

2V-R8 fumed and went back to his calculations, or whatever it was he was doing, clearly ignoring Caxia. I mustered a small smile through the pain that was starting to shoot through my mind again, along with images-

_A republic trooper, handing out candy to children in the streets, shot dead, a bolt through the eyepiece._

-of what I was sure were memories-

_A feeling of despair and fear, the black figure ahead of me- a traitor to the empire- igniting his lightsaber, dropping a few grenades, I fell back, firing at his feet and other areas that were hard to deflect shots aimed thereat._

- of Li'laith's, and spoke up.

"Why don't you come aboard? I'm sure that our discussion will be easier with us together than for us to continue it over the comm, Cax."

Caxia let out a smirk and her eye twinkled with unhidden malice. Instantly I knew my mistake, however, I was not given a chance to withdraw my statement, as, with a quick riposte, Caxia made her move.

"Oh, I don't know. I'd have to leave home."

She opened her arms wide, clearly referring to the ship, but also allowing her breasts to bounce free, causing my face to light up once more, which did nothing to alleviate the headache that was steadily getting worse. Judging by the evil smirk on my friend's face, she knew what she was doing and had no plans to stop.

"And people have to wear clothes outside the home...,"

She stroked an imaginary goatee and began to pace as much as she could, clearly just showing off now, and continued.

"You know, I always thought that the first time we'd meet, we'd be guys... I literally had no reasonable reason to believe otherwise. I mean, people generally stick with the gender they are born as."

She then proceeded to turn and shout to her own droid, somewhere out of the comm's range, putting as much twist in the movement as possible, obviously still showing off her assets, though this time is was a different pair of fleshy goodness.

"Hey clanky, show me how to get into my armor... and dock with the Farsight."

Finished with what could be loosely considered a conversation with her droid, she turned back to me and finished with a brutal blow that left me reeling, my headache worse than ever, and my body ever-so-slighty aroused, and I knew she had planned for her diatribe to do such since the very beginning.

"Never had lesbian sex before, looking forward to participating rather than watching, see you soon, Lily-kins!"

And then, with a cheeky wave, the channel was cut. Breathing heavily, I turned to 2V-R8, desperate for some good news, and promptly had my hopes crushed.

"Master, I have finished analyzing your conclusion, and have found that the current stellar arrangement is within expected parameters for three and a half millennia of galactic rotation and stellar drift."

* * *

><p>I was simultaneously glad for the few minutes I had until Caxia (formerly known as OnlineImhotep) arrived and utterly terrified of them. The silence of the whole ship left me able to think at least semi-clearly on my current situation, but it also allowed my mind to wander into dark places. Such as how I had gotten into this body...<p>

Not that I was complaining, she/I was beautiful. My skin was smooth azure that only accentuated my red eyes. My black hair was pulled back into a bun that I did not remember creating, and smoothly trimmed to fit what little I recognized as military standard. The uniform that I wore was crisp and professional-looking, and managed to flaunt what assets I had while still covering everything. The whole thing was several different shades of grey with red highlights. I was absolutely sure that, if I snapped a salute, I would be the very picture of military bearing.

But all that scared me. I, as I knew myself, was most assuredly _not_ beautiful. The last night before I had changed was gone from my mind and would bear no clues as to my predicament and the rest of my life back on earth was getting harder and harder to think of as time passed, as my mind cut out bits and pieces of nonessential data to try and fit two lives in one brain.

I knew that I was already far different than what I had been on Earth (Hell, I was a woman, now), but talking to my friend from the internet had driven home just how much I had changed.

_"I've never heard you string together so many words in such a British voice. Get your head checked out."_

Oh, no doubt she thought it funny, that was who she was. Both Caxia, born of Krieg, and OnlineImhotep could find humor in just about any situation. Both of them could claim to be professionals in the art of making an uncomfortable situation worse. Both of them loved fire, explosions, destruction.

Or, at least, Imhotep enjoyed those online.

They were both human.

He had crafted her backstory in his head, a tale of exploits and humor. Caxia Kriegborn was to be an old professional, a doctor, in fact, literally. By the story he crafted for her, she had a doctorate in Chemistry! She had left her planet in the search of adventure and had found it. Granted, the planet he had her from was called "Krieg", so, in all likelihood, leaving was also something of a matter of life an death, but that is beside the point.

Imhotep had crafted her with a humorous, even happy, backstory. A Humorous, unlikely backstory, with highs and lows.

Most of the lows involving the unspoken trauma of being raised on a planet named "Krieg".

I, on the other hand, had crafted Li'laith to be _broken_. She was proud of what she did for the Empire. She had years of training to join Intelligence. She had been betrayed by everyone above her. She had willingly brainwashed herself. She was supremely intelligent and a consummate professional.

And I shared nothing with her. Unlike Caxia, who I imagine Imhotep had made to simply be a hot, female him, I had made Li'laith to be a character who danced to the tune I set for her, my glee at the tortures imposed never ceasing. Always searching for new ways to break her, make her doubt, bring her pain. When I had told Imhotep of my plans for Li'laith, he had, in no uncertain terms, called me a monster.

I would have never wanted to be her, not with what I made her into.

I would have been plunged further down the rabbit hole, but was shaken from my descent by a noise somewhere between the noise of white noise and a cat being crushed to death.

After a few moments of focusing on the noise, I began to recognize it for what it was- a song.

"I don't want anybody else~!"

_It seems Caxia has arrived..._

"When I think about you, I touch myself~!"

_...goddammit._

She was still singing the tune when she walked up from the starboard docking hatch, finally bedecked in the armor I last remembered seeing her in- heavy Mandalorian plate, shaded purple, and hidden mostly under a heavy, black robe that she had tied at the waste. The lower half of her face was covered with a metal grille that hooked into a rebreather unit somewhere on her. Her grey-streaked hair was tied into a high ponytail, and her grey eyes shined with mirth. Well, eye, I suppose. Her right eye had been replaced after some - likely horrific - incident with a cybernetic one that glowed a malevolent red. I must not have noticed it, before, being as distracted as I was over the comm.

Unconsciously, it seemed, she fiddled with it near-continuously: poking it, flicking at it, scratching the edges. She stopped as she spoke up, however.

"You would not believe how much I love this purple Beskar'gam."

Caxia motioned to the whole of herself, completely at ease with her metallic voice, and did a little twirl, her robe whipping at her heels. Trying to smile indulgently and likely failing, I waved for Cax to take a seat in one of the many chairs in the lounge before making my reply.

"I doubt that very much, Cax. Surely you recall how fond I am of my uniform?"

Caxia sprawled herself across one of the chairs before looking me up and down, nodding, as she replied.

"You had it equipped for most of the game, yeah, I remember. Took me a bit to find this sexy gear."

Caxia motioned to herself, obviously indicating her own, rather impressive, attire, before tapping lightly on the metal mask she had somehow managed to get on.

"And the mask is the only thing that I felt complemented my significant rage while still showing my beautiful face."

She paused briefly, looking down at her assets with the pure, unadulterated joy of a teenage boy seeing breasts for the first time, before looking back up and meeting my inquisitive eyes.

"Do you know how hard this was to get on?"

Smiling lightly, I shook my head in the negative. Cocking her head in what was obviously a joyful manner, she finished.

"Not all the hard at all, actually. It'd be really dumb if it took a long-ass time to put on. Who has that kind of time right before a battle? Or before kinky times with friends?"

Shaking my head lightly at my friend's antics, I motioned around myself, indicating the ship.

"Moving on from your fantasies, would you like the grand tour before we get down to the meat of our situation? I haven't checked it all out myself, yet, and I do believe that a small adventure would do good for both of us."

Caxia leaned back, shrugging as she did so, and gave me a look of doubt.

"I never did spend much time on your ship. How haven't you memorized yours? I know mine like the back of, well, the back of my old hands."

If her face wasn't half-hidden behind the mask, I would have seen her smirk as she help up her hands, showing them off before continuing.

"These ones are new."

Letting out a light chuckle and shaking my head, I stood up, waving for Caxia to follow suit.

"Well, I'm positive that it will be a wholly different experience to actually be here, rather than see it through a screen."

Caxia give me a pitying look and get up herself, moving her hands in a shooing motion, and her voice exasperated.

"Whatever, get going, my sexy blueberry. I wanna get to the actual fun stuff."

Caxia then made an ancient hand symbol signifying fertility: one finger being grabbed by the opposite hand and sliding back and forth. She then looked thoughtful for a moment, before changing it to yet another archaic hand motion: her two hands mirroring each other with two spread fingers and then bringing the hands together to where the webbing between the fingers on each hand met.

Rolling my eyes, I began to explore the vessel with my hesitant (at first) friend. We both quickly warmed up to the enterprise as we explored, new senses now being used on a vessel that, as far as I was concerned, had never experienced them.

Caxia was rather impressed with the new experience, so much so that she felt it need be expressed in words.

…

Not that I could hear whatever it was she said, garbled and quiet such that it was through that damn mask. Why she felt the need to wear it, I'll never know. It isn't like it would help in a vacuum, and there are much less bulky rebreathers for water travel.

* * *

><p>Eventually, however, our exploration had to come to an end.<p>

We filed back into the lounge and settled ourselves back into the wonderfully plush seats once more. Both of us happy enough to just let the sounds of the ship overcome us and let the situation pass. Caxia sipped at a cup of-

_Is that red wine? Where the hell did she get that?_

-alcohol and made relaxed noises, while I simply laid my head back, hoping for a short rest.

_How is she drinking that!_

_Oh, right, induction port._

Alas, such was not to be.

2V-R8 wandered in, blatantly ignoring Caxia and made his way over to me.

"Master, I've narrowed it down to a few months of uncertainty!"

Caxia barely acknowledged it's presence and instead continued to sink deeper and deeper into the rather plush chairs of the lounge. The droid, quite pleased-looking with the situation where it did not need to speak with Caxia, continued what it had been saying.

"We are currently three-thousand six-hundred and eight years into the future."

That prompted a reaction from Caxia. The wine, whose location I now sorely desired to know myself, went spraying from her grill and across the chair opposite her, prompting a sore look from 2V-R8. She then yelled out, her distorted voice sorely hurting my eardrums.

"When the hell does that put us!"

I, meanwhile, was in a similar state of shock, only all the turmoil seemed to be contained within me. Granted, I had a general idea about the time we were in, but that date...

"Phantom Menace."

Caxia turned to look at me- the droid, meanwhile, continued to watch impassively, and cocked an eyebrow. Her emotions already under control, somehow. Shoving down my jealousy I listened to her doubtful reply.

"Really?"

Pushing down my jealousy of her control, I simply nodded to confirm her question, adding a slight caveat.

"Or at least sometime around then."

Mirth returned to Caxia's eye and she relaxed her body. Turning away from me, she leaned back once more, whispering words that I barely caught.

"You. Massive. Nerd."

Chuckling lightly and trying to shove off the revelations that being caught at this _exact_ time brought upon me, I waved to 2V-R8 and replied.

"Nice work, 2V, see if you can find the nearest habitable system and take us there."

The droid, peppy as can be, said something to the affirmative and scampered off. Rubbing my temples, I turned to Caxia, who was watching me with a bemused expression (you could tell by the crinkles around her eye), and gave her a small smile of my own before giving an explanation.

"It's not like we can live out in Interstellar space forever, huh? You should get back to the Warhound and get your droid to follow us. I would hate to end up anywhere without my best friend in this big, lonely galaxy."

Caxia gave me a very thoughtful look, her organic eye betraying thoughts and doubts while her mechanical eye just gazed on, its red glow unnerving. Eventually, she gives a small nod, likely coming to a decision internally, before meeting my eye and saying something that caught me out of left field.

"You're not acting right. And that irritates me."

Instantly a million thought that were not my own shot through my head. How best to dispose of someone without any questions-

_Jettison into dark space, of course._

-various hidey-holes-

_Nar Shadaa is bound to still hold a few_

-and various other things related to murder and how to get away with it. But all of those thought disappeared as Caxia spoke again, as though waiting for the moments of silence to flood my mind, that I may focus on the conversation in other times.

"Sometimes you're overwhelmed and sometimes you're cool as a cucumber, and you switch back and forth more often than a Polynesian whore being shuttled between two dudes. "

Caxia folded her hand and leaned over towards me, he eye gleaming either inquisitively or malevolently, and finally ended with a question.

"How much of this is you, and how much is your character?"

The voices in my head continued their arguements and suggestions for what seemed like an age, before a singlular thought came to the forefront of my mind-

_For now, denial._

-and I replied, a shrug on my shoulders and my body language confused.

"I haven't a clue as to what you are speaking of."

Caxia looked me up and down, taking in my total lack of body language and blank face before giving a slight nod.

"Denial... Or maybe you're just weird. I seem to be settling in a little too well, now that I think about it."

I smiled and nodded, dead behind my eyes, with my brain's turmoil seeming to fade as it dealt with this...issue. Like a viper it latched onto Caxia's expressed doubt as she tapped her metallic chin thoughtfully and compelled me to reply in a consoling manner.

"And that's why we should recover as our droids take us to the nearest civilized system. I'm sure that a nice rest will do us a world of good."

From then on the subject of me and my friend's conversations eluded me as my mind came under assault again, with various memories-

_Brainwashing? Me? No! I am loyal! How dare..._

- and ideas bouncing around my head. Eventually, however, it ended up with Caxia having laid claim to my bed and me resting peacefully in the lounge.

I felt the ship throw itself into hyperspace as the droid finally found a compatible destination and the let the low rumble of the engine rock me into slumber, all my energy spent, both physically and mentally. As darkness overtook me, I prayed for the strength to face what trials I new were to be ahead.

_At least one galactic-scale war..._

_...probably more..._

_..it's going to be hell, won't it?_

_At least Caxia will love it._


	3. Chapter 3

This chapter is why this has an "M" rating. I'd tell you to skip the fairly mild "lemon" but It actually has effects in the chapter and beyond so...reader beware, kinky times ahead.

* * *

><p>"Mmmm..."<p>

_Wha- ah- What i- oh- is going o- un- going on?_

Under the assault of rather foreign feelings, I opened my eyes, desperate to find out what was going on. Looming above me, Caxia, her mask hiding what I was sure was a massive grin on her face and her eye shining with mirth and malicious intent, stood.

Still somewhat confused as to where the feelings assaulting me were coming from, I tried to ask Caxia a question.

"Cax, what is ha-"

Only to fall to a second wave of feelings that I could only begin to describe as a heat, centering around my chest, that was pulsing outward and enveloping me in my entirety.

"Ahn~"

There was a brief break in the waves of heat and I rocketed back into the couch, confused and scared as to what was occurring.

As my back pressed into the couch, I felt pressure that I hadn't noticed before ease off of my chest. Somewhat curious and mildly dazed, I looked down.

_Well, those are my breasts. What are they doing o-_

I was interupted in my thoughts as Caxia moved forward, her armored hands closing once more around my breasts.

Firmly attached and with me unable to escape, Caxia began her campaign of tweaking, pinching, and rubbing.

"Uhn~"

My teeth ground together, my eyes tightly shut, and my head swung from side to side in a futile attempt to get away.

"Ohh~"

The heat from before, back and yet stronger still, surged through me in a flash flood, forcing my body to twist and squirm under Caxia's less-that-gentle ministrations.

"Hnn~"

My hands grasped at whatever was in reach: myself, Caxia, the couch, ect. My torso rolled and pitched, pushing back into the seat as my body fought with itself over the feelings. My thighs pinched together and rubbed each other, inciting more and stronger waves of the heat, while my legs kicked out and rotated into each other, my toes clenched tight.

This continued and built upon itself as the waves of heat raced through me more and more, and Caxia became more and more intense in her attentions, and my body responded more and more to her caress.

And yet, all at once, it began to rush out of me.

My every muscle tightened, my head was thrown back, and my mouth was caught in a silent scream for what seemed to be an eternity.

And then, without warning, all the heat finished rushing out of me, to where, I was not sure, but it left only a very satisfied feeling in it's wake as my dishevel form nearly slid out of the couch.

Caxia, had I been focusing on her face, was practically glowing with humor. She pulled her hands off of me and spoke up.

"Did you just climax from having your nipples tweaked? what the hell... The Chiss have some sensitive nips, dude."

I barely comprehended that Caxia had spoken, merely murmuring in my stupor-like state and clutching at my friend, missing the feeling of her upon me. The heat was completely gone now and I sought the nearest source of such once more. I nearly pulled myself those last few inches onto the floor in my attempt to reach her.

With a twinkle of amusement in her eye, Caxia watched my mewling, shaking her head slightly and muttering to herself as I continued to attempt to reach her.

"Huh, guess women really are cuddly."

As my attempted to reach her became more harried and I actually managed to grab her hand with my own. Sighing at the success, I became greedy and attempted to pull her to me, to gain the whole of the warmth I was being denied.

As I became markedly more violent in my attempts to capture Caxia, she became angry, yanking her hand out of mine. She ignored my pathetic whine and instead yelled at me, confusing my, admittedly shaky, consciousness in the process.

"I don't like being touched, dammit!"

Pulling back as through struck, I began to come back to my senses in time to see Caxia's hand tighten into what would almost undoubtedly be a punch. Curling inward, my arms over my head to protect it, I didn't see Caxia face when she next spoke, without a punch being thrown, but I heard the mix of disgust, surprise, and deep confusion in her voice, distorted though it was behind the mask on her face.

"Jesus, dude. I just wanted to fuck with you, then you went and made it weird by actually having an orgasm."

Caxia's voice softened slightly and she continued.

"Now I just feel weird. I'm out of here. When you stop being weird, I'll be in the cockpit, talking with your droid."

She then walked off, muttering under her breath.

"You women and your damn feelings."

A few minutes after I heard her armored boots leave the lounge, my shaky hands tried to roughly button my shirt back on as I left the ball I had curled into. Slouched over myself, I stood up and moved out of the room at an almost sluggish pace, fear slowing my walk. My mind was a terrible mix of betrayal of trust, deep sadness, and an almost certainly pathological fear of my friend. All of which I fought through to even travel in the general direction of my friend.

Before getting to the cockpit, however, I swung into my room, locking the door behind me and rushing over to my bed.

Falling into the plushy goodness, I curled into a cocoon amongst covers, blocking out the entire world and I let the tremors of fear shake themselves out. It was then, at the greatest moment of fear I'd felt so far in my little adventure, that having an alien set of memories helped the greatest.

Li'laith was a fantastic compartmentalizer, even if I was not. It was maybe ten minutes after I had curled into the bed and withdrawn deep into my own mind, I felt myself freed from my bed. Uncomprehendingly, I watched as I hobbled over to the bathroom, confused as to what was going on. After my body entered the restroom and the doors had closed behind me, all the clothes I was wearing ended up in pile in a corner as I moved across the room, heading straight for the shower.

The feeling of all my sweat being forced off of me by the beat of the shower cooled my erratic breathing, at which point, my breathing slowed and I heard a light voice echo through my head.

_In. Up to ten. Out. Down to zero. Repeat._

The monotony and repetitiveness of the chant and action distracted me as I re-clothed into a different uniform set. I was shocked out of my distraction to see myself over to the sink at the opposite end of the room, water was splashed onto my face and a hand rubbed my forehead to stave off a pending headache.

Feeling a touch energized by the trip to the restroom, I came back to my main room to the sound of knocking. Immediately, I froze as a voice spoke up to accompany the knocks.

"Hey, it's me. I wanna have a manly heart to heart."

Even through the door and distorted by her grille, I could hear the regret in Caxia's voice. My body, however, refused to move, to form words, to think, even.

While I could do nothing however, the mind of another, who had already been trying to calm me down, pushed on. A voice, barely my own and yet absolutely the same as mine, replied to Caxia's invitation.

"That will be unnecessary, Caxia. I just need a while to get myself back together."

There was a pause and a hiss of static that might have been a sigh before Caxia replied.

"C'mon, don't act like a victim. We both know that you liked it."

While _I_ fled further into my psyche at this, my counterpart simply let loose a light chuckle and shook my head. A light, "Indeed," was thrown out and my body walked over to the door.

A wave of my hand later, and the door swished open to admit Caxia as my body sauntered back over to my bed. When I finally reached it, I did a quick heel-turn and came to a seat on the edge, my legs crossed, and a smirk on my lips.

With a beckoning wave and a pat on the bed next to me, I invited Caxia in.

"Let's get this over with quickly, then. I've still to discover our destination."

Caxia followed me into the room and quirked her eyebrow at the way my mask was acting. She gave a light shrug and sat down next to me on the bed. Shortly thereafter, I felt a jolt of terror be fought down as Caxia threw her arm around my shoulders, pulling me into her. There was another hiss of static before she finally spoke.

"I'm sorry that I hand-raped you. It was wrong of me."

I felt a small amount of the terror that I was locked with dissipated and savored the relief of the feeling while the mask continued the conversation, throwing her own arm around Caxia.

"And I am sorry to be so much better looking than you. It's a wonder you held out this long."

Caxia let out a snort and a chuckle, shaking her head and patting me on the back. She wiped away an imaginary tear (from her mechanical eye, no less!) and adopted a faux-serious tone as she replied once more.

"Yeah, what can I say? I enjoy the alien babes. I am Captain Kirk; I fondle all the alien boobs."

The casual speech was quickly bringing me back out of the mask, which, though I was thankful for, was starting to get a little creepy. Adopting a light smile, I flicked the back of her head and snuggled in a little closer as I responded to her with a chuckle.

"Only alien boobs? I'm certain you gave at least a little love to your own pair."

Oddly enough, I was feeling more like myself than I had at any other point since the start of this debacle. Feeling relieved at the loss of my terror, I forged on, trying to get back on the track of where, exactly, we were.

"Did 2V-R8 tell you what the nearest planet was while you were with him in the cockpit?"

Caxia let out a rather unlady-like snort and shook her head. Her reply was curt and laced with sarcasm.

"Nah. That clanker hates me... It's probably my charming personality, it doesn't like having the spotlight taken away."

Sighing in exasperation, I removed myself from Caxia and stood up, dusting myself off as I did so. I pulled as various edges of my uniform and made it once more pristine before turning back to Caxia, who regarded me with a curious eye. I gave her a low smile and motioned for her to follow me, giving the explanation for such as I turned around and made for the door.

"Well then I'll just have to ask him myself."

Had I been watching Caxia, I would have seen her wave me off and flop back onto my bed, with no intentions of moving anytime soon. However, I was not watching Caxia. Rather, I had already left the room and made a sharp right, swiftly reaching the cockpit and finding my droid at the controls.

Starting at my arrival, 2V-R8 whirled about, exclaiming joyfully.

"Oh, master! I'm so happy to see you!"

It then proceeded to lean towards me and act as though it were whispering, prompting a smile from me as it continued to speak.

"Your rather boorish friend was up here a small while ago, trying to distract me from my work, but she failed!"

It leaned back up to full height and flourished towards the viewport. Through the maneuver it exclaimed.

"Here we are, master! The Tatoo System!"

…

_Dammit_

Following its gesture, I looked out into the binary star system. Well...more like looked out at a collection of lights that were markedly brighter than other stars on the endless canvas. The only truly notable sight was what was clearly two suns, each of which were yellow, main-sequence stars, standing as a brilliant centerpiece to the system.

Near to them, however, was a small light that was vastly brighter than the two gas giants in the system- Tatooine, herself.

It was glorious, beautiful, and absolutely the last place I wanted to be.

_I am **not** going to Naboo._

Interrupting my mental rant, it seemed that 2V was not quite done delivering the bad news.

"I've detected multiple signatures that indicate corvette and smaller class vessels in system. It is highly likely that they are smugglers and mercenaries with ties to the local Hutts."

_Of course there are._

Sighing and looking away from the viewport and back towards 2V-R8, I asked him a few questions that I felt needed to be addressed.

"How much of a chance is it that the pirates will attack us if we go in for a landing on the planet?"

"Low, the _Warhound_ is still alongside us and it appears heavily armed enough to deter any pirates from attacking us."

_Good to see that we are dealing with average cowards. A small threat and they scurry to their holes._

"Could we land both vessels and not expect them to be stolen in the first few hours?"

"Well, if by 'we' you mean yourself, master, and your bounty hunter friend. Neither I nor my unfortunate counterpart on the _Warhound _are programmed for planetary approach. Hyperspace calculations and intrigue protocols, certainly, but planetary approach is beyond me without an upgrade to my programing. In addition, the Hutts would never let a whole ship be stolen, it would appear bad for business. So long as we seem valuable or sufficiently wealthy, master, we have nothing to fear."

_Well that is one less thing to worry about, I suppose._

"Could we go to another system?"

"Not reliably, master, we've actually been out of hyperspace for the last 4 hours, bringing us closer to the system itself. We need an updated chart of the hyperspace lanes before we can get anywhere else. To be quite frank, we had a 48.182% chance of encountering a catastophic failure just to get here, the nearest occupied system. Any more risk and my own protocols would have prevented me from complying with your orders, master."

_Of course that's how this is going to work. Damn game-like mechanics._

Sighing, I waved towards the droid dismissively and spoke to him as I left the cockpit, heading back towards my room, giving it orders as I went.

"Hook us back up to the _Warhound_, then. We'll get Caxia aboard her ship and then head in-system."

I ignored the droid's peppy, "Yes, Master!" as I left the cockpit and instead waved open my room's door after the short walk down the hallway.

Caxia was laying, sprawled across my bed, somehow taking up the entire thing with her much smaller body. Smirking at the sight, I walked up to the vulnerable cyborg and slowly, lovingly stroked her leg.

…

And then yanked her off the bed.

She hit the ground with a squawk and glared up at me. I stifled a chuckle at her indignant face and, in the most professional voice I could muster, spoke to her.

"If you are quite done lounging on my bed, Caxia, then you will be thrilled to learn that we are in the Tatoo system, home to Tatooine. Our droids can't take us in for a landing, so you need to get back aboard the Warhound."

Caxia briefly gave me a death glare from the ground before her face turned thoughtful. After a few moments she spoke up, her face having turned confused and her eyes uncertain.

"Tattooine? That sounds like bounty hunting central, and I'm not sure why I know that."

I quirked an eyebrow at her, and shook my head.

_I'm sure he's seen the episodes, so is he joking or just forgetful?_

Looking back down at her, I caught her attention by snapping my fingers and tried to alleviate her confusion, whether is was false or not.

"Caxia...Jabba the Hutt? The Sarlacc Pit? Slavery? All of that is on Tatooine."

A light of recognition and...greed? lit in Caxia's eye as she replied.

"Jabba, huh? Think he's got a bounty on him? He's a massive cunt, someone's gotta want him dead."

Her eye took on a more thoughtful look once more as Caxia tapped at her metal grille, continuing her speech.

"In fact, he probably has the biggest bounty of them all...and, judging by the way my thoughts are going, I made Cax a massive money-whore on our playthrough."

I shook my head to clear the amusement off of my face before replying in a firm tone, my arms crossed and a frown marring my face.

"Caxia, no killing Jabba the Hutt. For one thing, he probably pays for most of the bounties on Tatooine, so killing him cuts off a profit source. For another, until the story has passed us by, I'm not going to interact with it's characters in such an Earth-shattering way."

As my words went on, Caxia's face came to look more and more strained until, finally, as I finished talking, she burst into laughter. After watching her with a half-bemused, half-angry expression for a minute or so, she stopped laughing and instead proceeded to wipe away a fake tear from under her metallic eye. Having finished her routine, she regarded me with an amused expression before asking me a question half-seriously.

"So I suppose busting a cap in ickle Ani-kins is off the table?"

I grimaced at the thought and shook my head fervently before replying, now stretching my hand down to help Caxia up.

"No. No killing Anakin. Now get over to your ship. We can discuss this further once we make planetfall."

Caxia rolled her eyes at me before taking my hand and hoisting herself up, muttering under her breath as she rose.

"Sure thing, Miss Buzz Killington."

Stifling a chuckle and stepping back from my friend, I waved for her to follow me and made my way back towards the boarding tube. I hadn't heard the distinctive clang that marked us coupling with another vessel, but that was likely due to us talking over it, rather than it not having happened yet.

Shortly, we reached the tube and I bid Caxia adieu, promising to meet her in Mos Espa. As the airlock began to close, Caxia waved goodbye and spoke to me.

"Dude, this is the weirdest dream I've ever had."

Then the airlock closed with a bang, leaving me alone on my vessel and suddenly in extreme doubt.

* * *

><p>Mos Elsa was a shithole.<p>

Imagine, if you will, a planet composed wholly of Death Valley, California. Now, take all the smugglers, bounty hunters, and general ne'er-do-wells who would attempt to survive such a place and put a city on that planet under their control. Now bribe every officer of the law and place the whole thing under the control of a giant, greedy slug.

Welcome to Mos Elsa.


End file.
